on training, travel and other adventures on the road to Olympics 2012

Shannon is an Olympic athlete, World Championships Bronze medalist and two-time US 1500m Champion. When she isn't running she is exploring San Francisco's museums, restaurants, nightlife and art scene.

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02/11/2012

Last Saturday I ran my first race of the 2012 season, a 3k at the Boston New Balance Indoor Grand Prix. The race spread out quickly, with the lead pack taking it out in 68-69 seconds per lap. Since it was my first race, and I was coming out of altitude, I was hesitant to bite off more than I could chew. I knew I was strong but had some sharpening to do, so I decided it would be best to take it out conservatively. My goal was to work the middle of the race and finish strongly: I finished well, but unfortunately the 55 meter gap between the lead pack and the chase pack made made it hard to get the most out of that middle section. In the end, I placed 5th in 8:55, which is a respectable finish but makes me wish I had another chance to go at it in the 3k.

I also had an opporutnity to speak with David Monti about last year and my thoughts on the upcoming season. As usual, he wrote a great article: "SHAKING OFF LAST YEAR'S DISAPPOINTMENTS, ROWBURY OPTIMISTIC ABOUT 2012 SEASON." You can read the article below.

BOSTON (03-Feb) - When Shannon Rowbury broke the tape to win the Fifth Avenue Mile in New York City in September, 2009, she capped the best year of her career. The 2008 Olympian and former Duke University star had ascended to become America's #1 female miler, winning national titles at 1500m and the mile on the road, clocking a swift 4:00.81 for 1500m, and taking the bronze medal at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin.

But during 2011, Rowbury, 27, didn't win a single race. Moreover, while she struggled to regain her form after dealing with Achilles injuries in both her left and right ankles, she watched compatriots Morgan Uceny and Jenny Simpson pile on the accolades, including Uceny's #1-ranking in the 1500m by Track & Field News and Simpson's world 1500m title, the first by an American woman in 28 years.

"Last year? I felt like nothing could go right for me last year," Rowbury said in an interview with Race Results Weekly. "I hurt my right Achilles in the fall, and just as that was getting better around this time last year, my left Achilles started bothering me. I lost my grandmother, who was like a second mother to me. It was just like, man, I can't catch a break."

Rowbury, who lives in San Francisco and trains under John Cook's Austin Track Club, is here in Boston to make a fresh start at tomorrow night's New Balance Indoor Grand Prix. She's been in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where Cook's group does their winter altitude training, focusing on building her strength and endurance for the long Olympic year. She'll run the 3000m here as a rust-buster against a strong field, which includes Simpson.

"Last year forced me to reevaluate everything," Rowbury continued. "There were some really tough moments where I questioned why I did this as a sport, why I put myself through this, you know, trying to put myself in the shape I had been in and not quite being able to get there. But, it made me realize how fit I had been and appreciate that."

Rowbury said she enjoys the relaxed vibe that training in Mexico offers, a calm prelude to the pressures of elite international competition. Her boyfriend, miler Pablo Solares, is also Mexican and the pair train together, along with Leo Manzano, Treniere Moser, and Lea Wallace amongst others.

"It's been good," she said of her latest stretch of training. "I've been in Mexico since the beginning of December... and I've really enjoyed the simplicity of life in Mexico: good weather, easy access to facilities, and having extra time at altitude to build that base I missed out on last year, to get that extra strength."

By starting out her season with a 3-K, Rowbury won't have to call on the kind of speed she has shown in the mile, where she is a fierce kicker. But, she said, under Cook's program, there is always an element of speed development in their training, even during an endurance phase.

"I think my speed is good," said. "It's certainly not where it will be in June, but throughout the year coach Cook does a good job of making sure we are not too far from speed. We're always doing, at least once a week, a speed development day. We've been doing power lifting and stuff like that in the weight room to get that explosiveness."

Tomorrow's race --her first since last September-- will give her objective feedback on her current level of fitness, she said, especially since she's been running exclusively at high altitude which means running at a slower pace.

"I'm excited go get out there again against a top-notch field of women and just kind of push myself and see where my strengths and weaknesses are and moving forward from there."

From Boston, Rowbury will go down to New York City for next Saturday's Millrose Games where she will run the NYRR Wanamaker Metric Mile, a 1500m race, again against Simpson. After that, she said she might do the USA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, but she and coach Cook had been leaning against it. However, because Albuquerque is at high altitude, Rowbury could enjoy a relative advantage because she has been "training high."

"Coach Cook did mention that," Rowbury said of the high altitude. "That's why I'm saying it's not fully out of the question because he did throw that out last week when were were at training. But, as of now, I haven't made any plans for it."

02/04/2012

Well, after a long winter hiatus of altitude training in Mexico, I'm finally putting my fingers back to work. My New Years Resolution was to be more attentive to my blog, and while it took me a month to start honoring that resolution, I'm hoping that I can keep it from here forward.

I'm kicking off my 2012 season tonight with a 3k race at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix. The field is stacked and the facility is familiar (The Reggie Lewis Center). I even heard that the event is sold out, so it's sure to be a fun evening.

Videos: Yesterday Morgan Uceney, Anna Pierce, Jenny Simpson, Maggie Vessey & I did a press conference. You can watch the video recording of it (in three parts) below. (I'm still trying to figure out how to embed these...would love some help from someone more techy than myself!)

08/03/2011

Throughout the span of my pro-running career, I have experienced living in many different locales. I am a creature of habit, so my goal has always been to find a spot and stick with it, but until now I haven't quite found the perfect fit.

In 2008, my first European summer, I stayed in Cologne, Germany, but wasn't a big fan. I came over by myself, didn't bring my computer (seemed like a good idea at the time...until I got to Europe), stayed in the Sports University dorms, and overall just felt homesick.

The next year (2009), Leo Manzano and I stayed in Teddington, England, just outside of London, and while I absolutely LOVED it there, my blood-pressure rose every time I went through customs (and our coach one time got detained), so we decided that we better find someplace else.

Last year (2010) was a case of musical rooms. We went first to Egmund Aan Zee, about 45 minutes outside of Amsterdam, and though the training was great, we had to take a bus to a train to get to every plane, and the commute became too much. I did some mid-summer altitude training in Font Romeu, France and then settled into Leuven, Belgium. Things were pretty good there, but I still hadn't found my perfect fit.

So now, summer of 2011, I have to laugh at the fact that I have come full circle back to Cologne, Germany (called Koln in Germany), and I couldn't be happier!

This year, I am in a serviced apartment located equidistant from the track and downtown, and otherwise in the center of my little universe of needs. Within 400m in any direction I have access to the tram, the park, grocery stores, cafes, a Deutche Bank (no BofA fees!), and many cafes. When it's time for practice, a 5 min train ride takes me to the track, unless I decide to run there through the park, which takes about 15 min. When it's time for dinner, if I don't feel like cooking then a 5 min tram ride takes me to a huge array of restaurants.

I owe this ideal situation to Steffen Keil, one of my agents at Peter Stubbs Management. He lives in Cologne and is the one who setup everything for me and my teammates.

Below is a map I created, showing some of my favorite spots. Click on it for further details about running, food & shopping in Cologne.

Last week, we had the pleasure of hosting Alex from FloTrack for a couple nights. He made a Euro Shack Video of my teammate (not boyfriend :P) Leo Manzano's room. Since we're nextdoor neighbors, I am there hanging out as well. Check the video below to see our accomodations.

As of today I am actually off to London for one more 1500m race. After that I am heading to St. Moritz for some altitude training before heading off to Daegu, South Korea for the World Championships near the end of the month. I have never been to St. Moritz before, but I am hoping that training and living will be great there as well! As for Daegu...fingers and toes crossed. :)

07/05/2011

Last weekend at the USATF National Championships in Eugene, OR., I earned a spot on the 2011 World Championships team in Daegu, South Korea. It was a very talented field of women in the 1500m and I knew that it would be tough to make the team, especially considering that I've struggled with an Achilles injury for most of this year. But, the top 3 finishers make the team, and fortunately I was able to squeak by and place third by 0.01 seconds.

I want to thank all the people who supported me over the past couple months and made it possible for me to qualify for the World Championships. I had many doctors, coaches, friends, family and mentors that helped me to heal (mentally and physically) and who helped me believe it was possible. I especically want to thank my grandma, Nonie, who passed away in January. Thinking of her is what got me to the finish line!

05/25/2011

After a little over 4 weeks of altitude training in Albuquerque, I am back in the Bay Area for a few days. Things are quite different here, compared to Albuquerque...the air is so much thicker, the scenery is so different, but I do have to admit that the people are great in both.

My favorite thing about being home is getting to see my family and friends. I had a nice chance to catch up with my parents on the trip back from Occidental College, where we spent many hours discussing house plans and dream vacations. At the moment, I am in Berkeley, where I am about to spend a friend night with Alysia and Louis Montano. I'm not sure what exactly is on the agenda, but I think it will involve yummy home cooking and possibly a movie. Fun! But before that starts, I'll give a quick review of my last week.

After 31 days of relative inactivy (outside of practice time), this past week brought lots of movement. On Thursday the entire team flew to Los Angeles for the Occidental High Performance meet. We had a lengthy wait for baggage and then a major mix up with rooms, but at the end of the day we all bunked up together and finally got some good, oxygen rich sleep.

We passed the time before our race with some epic Uno games and a visit to the movie theater. Leo, Pablo, and I saw the matinee of Pirates of the Caribbean at one of those fancy theaters where you have to reserve your seats...except that there were only 3 other people in the place, so we purposely disregared our seat assignments and sat wherever we wanted.

On Saturday, I opened my season with a 1500m race, which I dedicated to my teammate Sally Meyerhoff. I wish I could have gotten a better time (or a win) for her, but my performance was decent. I was 9th in 4:11. I was in good position until about 200m to go, but then it was clear that there is still a good deal of rust in the legs because I didn't have any turnover on the finishing stretch. Let's hope that this next month of training/racing will help me clear that out. The race is below.

10/02/2010

Over the summer I started keeping a video blog (Vlog) for Universal Sports. For those of you familiar with the site, I wanted to let you know that I just posted some new videos of the Zurich Weltklasse Kids Clinic and the warm up field there.

For those of you who haven't seen any of the Vlogs yet, check them out at:

06/14/2010

This past Saturday, June 12, I competed in my season opener 1500m in a Diamond League race at the Adidas Grand Prix in NYC. I placed 5th in a time of 4:04.o, and although I would have liked to run faster/place higher, overall I am pretty pleased with the result. It is always interesting to see how my body will react in the first race of the year at a given event, especially when that first race is against the best athletes in the World. I've been healthy and training well, but found that 64/65s were a bit of a shock to the system. My first race this year was a 5k and then I did an 800m, so it will be nice to really start honing in on my main event. I got knocked around at the start and then at 500m to go the Africans started to move and I let a gap form, but I was able to run a 14.9 last 100m, which was one of my fastest splits in the race. While I should have worked a little more earlier in the race, I was happy that I at least finished strong and held off some of my competitors.

For a great race write up, check up what Tom Kloos wrote for the BATC.

If David Torrence's season opener at 1500m is an indication of things to
come, it will be an exciting season indeed. David out-performed pre-race
expectations, finishing seventh place in a new PR of 3:35.81 at the Adidas Grand Prix, taking nearly three seconds off of his previous best.
The race was won in 3:33.29 by Nicholas Kemboi of Kenya, and the top
American finisher was Leonel Manzano in 3:33.92.

David
settled into the middle of the pack from the start of the race, which
was off to a quick pace. “I wasn’t getting splits. I was just racing.” A
gap opened up midway through the race, separating David from the
leaders. With the pace already fast, and somewhat cautious with a sore
hamstring, David waited until the last 600 meters to start giving chase,
but managed to close with a final lap of 55 seconds to move up to
seventh.

Bay
Area Track Club teammate Shannon Rowbury finished fifth in the women’s 1500,
describing her race as “strong in the finish, but I didn’t have much
pop.” Shannon’s time of 4:04.00 was just behind top-finishing American
Jenny Berringer in 4:03.63. The winner was Nancy Jebet Langat of Kenya
in 4:01.60. Shannon’s season opener last year was slightly faster, but
in a race which she says she “totally died in the end. So my finish (at
the adidas Grand Prix) was an improvement.”

Shannon and David now head to North Carolina to train with coach John
Cook, before lacing up next in Iowa for the USATF Outdoor Championships
beginning June 23.

04/11/2010

We've been training in Mexico for 5 weeks now and thanks to David Torrence we have hours of video footage. David just finished editing the first installment, an introduction to Team Cook. Check it out: